Story: "How This Couple Has Stayed Married (and in Love) for 75 Years."

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Good to know that, at 37 years married to each other, we’re halfway there.
 
That was such a refreshing story. And a welcome break from the “wedding advice” older people seem to give younger couples involving, the guy seeming like a doofus and just has to do whatever the woman says…
 
Every year Marriage Encounter gives “A Lifetime of Love” awards to the longest married couples to demonstrate that it is possible to have just one love and have it forever.
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A good change of pace from stories that feature high ranking Catholics making statements implying “a lifetime of love” is a pie in the sky ideal that is impossible to actually live up to.

Even many who advocate “traditional marriage” often give “advice” to young people contemplating marriage something like "Don’t bother to have high expectations or standards that are too high for your spouse. Certainly do NOT expect your spouse to meet your emotional needs. Just marry someone who is strong in the faith and who you can be friends and co-parents with, for chances are that “in love” feeling will fade after the first few years, and then you have to grit your teeth and bear it until death do you part, and remember that “love is a choice”!

Often with some aside about “Remember, the idea that romantic love has anything to do with marriage has only been the case in Western society for the last 200 years or so, anyway!”

I have seen this kind of idealization of what is essentially arranged marriage on CAF and even more on non-Catholic “fundamentalist” sites, yet IMHO this “marriage is just about duty and love as a choice” approach to be just as unbalanced as the “marriage is just about lovey dovey feelings and as soon as they fade it’s fine to get a divorce and look for the next one, or if you can’t get a divorce for some reason it’s fine to commit adultery” Hollywood version of love.
 
Wonderful couple, article, and advice! Thanks so much for sharing. Our Lord’s blessings always.
 
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